By Joseph Andrew Lee
Because of its
worldwide popularity, getting guaranteed entry into the ING New York
City Marathon isn’t easy. Only a small percentage of the approximately
40,000 runners who gain entry are guaranteed a spot. To qualify for a
guaranteed spot, runners need to have run 15 or more New York City
Marathons or be a member of New York Road Runners who have completed
nine qualifying races as well as volunteered for one event anddonated $1,000 to the NYRR. The rest of the field is chosen largely by lottery.
But there is another way.
Runners can raise money for the troops and get a guaranteed spot running for TEAM USO.
“I
tried to get in the lottery but I wasn’t selected,” said Christine
Cherry, who will be running her first marathon ever Sunday with TEAM
USO. “So I looked at the charity page and when I saw the USO it just
seemed too perfect. ‘Of course I’ll raise money for the USO,’ I thought.
How awesome is that?!”
Cherry, a West Palm Beach, Fla. native, is
married to an Army officer who is currently deployed to Afghanistan.
She found it “really easy” to raise the required $2,500 to join the
team. She has reached $3,300 and she is still receiving donations just
days from the race.
“I took my Christmas list and I made a
Shutterfly card with a picture of my family with my husband in uniform,”
Cherry said. “And I sent it out as a ‘Cherry Family Update,’ informing
them that my daughter graduated kindergarten, my husband left for
Afghanistan and I was training for a marathon – running for the USO! I
simply asked that if anyone wanted to send a donation, they could and it
would go straight to the USO. The checks just keep coming!”
Army
veteran Kyle McCoy has been eating marathons for breakfast. He lives in
the Pacific Northwest, and loves running so much that he’s developed a
taste for the longer, 50- and even 100-mile runs. On Sunday, his bacon
and eggs will be the ING New York City Marathon.
McCoy said: “This year I set two goals for myself: To raise over $3,500 for the USO and to beat my best time of 02:54:00.”
For
McCoy – who has run between 20 and 30 marathons since his first NYC
Marathon in 2007 – it’s less about the nostalgia and more about beating
his time. After running such long races at a slower pace, he believes
his greatest challenge will be keeping his pace up.
“The New York
marathon is my favorite course, so I’m excited to run it again Sunday,”
said McCoy who is a former Army Ranger and veteran of four tours in
Afghanistan. “This summer I did my first 100-miler, the Cascade Crest,
and when you’re running that long of a distance, you really have to take
it slow, so my biggest challenge is going to be picking up my pace so
that I can beat my time.”
McCoy and Cherry are just two of the 31 TEAM USO runners that have raised nearly $75,000 for troops and their families.
To learn more about these motivated volunteer runners or about how you can join TEAM USO in a future race, navigate to the TEAM USO website.
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